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| Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack (joseph a) |
There are four interesting, newsworthy stories on the front page of The Record today, but the editors of the Local news section continue to rely too heavily on crime stories.
Local is dominated by a not-guilty plea from the suspect in the arson murder of a widow, and the testimony of a suspended police officer who is charged with altering "his license plates."
License-plate alteration? Is that big local news, even if a cop is charged with doing it?
Corrupt editing
Meanwhile, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza downplay two stories about Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, who vetoed an attempt to water down the county's pay-to-play ordinance.
That important story is buried on L-3 -- a crime against Bergen readers, who lived for too many years under disappointing Democratic county administrations.
Time to go
If Sykes and Sforza aren't deciding the best "play" of stories, The Record can save tons of money by kicking their lazy, incompetent asses off of Garret Mountain.
If they decided to bury this anti-corruption story, the Borgs should certainly kick them out.
Editorial treats
Look at the L-1 story on Daniel Rochat, suspect in the murder of Barbara Vernieri, whom he had known for decades -- a follow-up on his arrest (Page 1 on Friday).
As usual, Bergen Prosecutor John Molinelli is giving out information on the investigation and Rochat bit by bit, and Sykes and Sforza are acting like lap dogs yapping for treats.
He gets mail
On the front of Friday's Local section, most of the Road Warrior column is based on e-mails from readers -- another sign Staff Writer John Cichowski ran out of ideas long ago (L-1).
Commuting by car, bus and train is a daily ordeal in the metropolitan area, but Cichowski devotes his thrice-weekly column to issues that have nothing to with the daily trek to and from work.
Oh, on the continuation page, Cichowski does mention how some commuters can take their bicycles aboard trains (L-10).
But he fails to note that all of the new local buses operated by NJ Transit (they're painted white) have front-mounted bike racks.
That omission is typical of Cichowski's incomplete, often inaccurate columns.
(See previous post, "Reader blasts Road Warrior errors.")
Uneducated news play
With five pages of Friday's Local section devoted to higher education, there is little local news.
Sykes and Sforza buried a preview of Donovan's veto all the way back on L-10.
At the top of that page, a story on an NJ Transit bus driver who was charged with vehicular homicide -- allegedly killing one of her passengers -- doesn't even include the number of her local bus line.
Was it the No. 780 bus, which runs from Englewood through Hackensack to the city of Passaic, where the 49-year-old man was killed? Let the guessing game begin.
Welcome profile
Also buried in Friday's Local section is Staff Writer Denisa R. Superville's wonderful profile of Teaneck institution Lou Schwartz, 100 (L-11).
Usually, thanks to Sykes and Sforza, we only read about people like Schwartz after they're dead.
Stranding readers
If I was stranded in Mahwah and starving, I wouldn't eat at the mediocre Zaytoon, the subject of a full-blown restaurant review on Friday (Better Living, BL-20-21).
Why does Staff Writer Elisa Ung bother to write about places like this? Couldn't she do capsules under the heading: "Certainly not worth the detour"?
She got paid for eating there, and The Record picked up the check, but that's no reason to waste our time.
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